Review: 'The Pagemaster' sends wrong message that peer pressure is good

The Pagemaster    G

            The Hunts direct an oddball riff on NeverEnding Story with a boy nearly suckered into peer pressure who goes to a magical realm and learns about books by talking books, like an after school special about reading, only to return and give in to said peer pressure and do a stunt, with no consequences whatsoever. Yes, lovely message. Reading should be the message, now bowing to what others tell you. 
     Macaulay Culkin of Home Alone is exempt from the rash of children doing what movies tell them crowd, and can do stupid things like in Home Alone at whim, and nobody complains. Back in the 1980s, it was perfectly all right to bow to peer pressure. The movie tries to be something admirable but in the end fails to deliver what really should have happened, the little daredevil should have ended up breaking a bone or two. That way he could sit and read while recovering.
Review by Adam Browne